Carney: I only have one email address

By DONOVAN SLACK

06/04/2013 02:24 PM EDT

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday that having two email accounts has been a routine practice during this and previous administrations.

He said administration officials have one address that they use for public email and another that they use for internal communication, but he said all are searched in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

"Let's be clear: This is a practice consistent with prior administrations of both parties," Carney said, and added that the secondary accounts are not "secret" but rather "alternative work" accounts.

The AP reported Tuesday that top administration officials at the Department of Health and Human Services and Labor Department have alternative email addresses that are not disclosed to the public. The AP also reported that FOIA requests for information about the practice at other agencies have gone unfulfilled for longer than three months.

Carney would not say how many White House officials have "alternative work" email addresses but he said he himself only has one. He said he did change it once, after the address was divulged to the public by his predecessor at the podium, Robert Gibbs.

"That’s a very reasonable thing to do," he said, noting that he and other top officials could be inundated with so many emails from the public or spam that it would interfere with their ability to do their jobs.